Every once in a while I get someone saying to me, “Yeah, but does Irvine Mayor Sukhee Kang really have a chance against John Campbell in the new CD-45?” My answer is usually along the lines of: “I don’t know whether he should, given the numbers, but Sukhee’s a smart and competent moderate and Campbell’s a really bad and lazy candidate. Given that this is a new electorate for Campbell, who knows?”

It turns out that the Orange County Republican Party has its own reservations about the Rep from Irvine. An insurance broker named John Webb got just enough votes to deny the incumbent the endorsement.

From an OC Young Democrats press release of this afternoon:

The Republican Orange County Central Committee (OCGOP) rejected the endorsement of Republican incumbent Congressman John Campbell yesterday at their early endorsement meeting. John Campbell was the only incumbent who faced a challenger at yesterday’s meeting and the only candidate not to be endorsed.

John Campbell received 41 of 63 votes from central committee members, missing the 2/3 threshold for endorsement by one vote.

Attendees at the meeting described the vote as a “powerful moment,” noting that individuals stood up in front of the Congressman to cast their no votes in person.

This is the first time the OCGOP has refused to endorse John Campbell for Congress, an indication that his party support has erroded significantly in the past two years.

In total 22 people stood up to vote no on endorsing the incumbent Congressman.

“John Campbell has become such a part of the problem in Washington that he can’t even get support from Republicans in his own backyard,” said Melissa Stern, Political Director for OCYD, “Campbell’s shameful record, including being one of only two votes to protect legal insider stock trading for members of Congress, should cause concern for every Orange County voter.”

The Register’s Total Buzz noted that it seems to have been Campbell’s 2008 support for the TARP vote, rather than the standard eye-popping support for insider trading here in 2012, that seems to be turning off Republicans, but even so: this is unexpected. It’s sort of like Loretta Sanchez not getting the Democratic party’s nomination in CD-46 against, oh, Paco Barragan. Could happen, I guess; it would be a big surprise, though.

For the record, GOP Chair Scott Baugh pronounces thusly:

John Campbell has been one of the most courageous and tenacious opponents of earmarks and other abusive government spending,” Baugh said. “He enjoys considerable support among rank-and-file Republicans. There are a number of people who are still upset about the TARP vote but I’m confident they will support him in November.

Indeed, Campbell is a tenacious opponent of earmarks — generally refusing to seek them for what is his wealthy current district. That played well in Newport Beach — which will no longer be part of his district. Will his “we don’t need your government money!” routine play well in Irvine, Tustin, Orange, Villa Park, Anaheim Hills, Laguna Woods, Laguna Hills, Lake Forest, Mission Viejo, Rancho Santa Margarita, and Coto de Caza? It’s a stringent position that takes some getting used to.

I wonder how “courageous” he’ll remain when under fire in front of an entirely new audience. I haven’t spoken to him about this race at all, but I’ll bet that Mayor Kang already has some ideas about that.

About Greg Diamond

Prolix worker's rights and government accountability attorney and General Counsel of CATER. His anti-corruption work in Anaheim infuriated the Building Trades and Teamsters in spring 2014, leading them to work with the Democratic Party of Orange County Chair and other co-conspirators (who had long detested the internal oversight his presence provided) to remove him from the position of DPOC North Vice Chair of in violation of party rules and any semblance of due process. He also runs for office sometimes.
Unless otherwise specifically stated, none of his writings prior to that lawless putsch ever spoke for the Democratic Party at the local, county, state, national, or galactic level. He tries to either suppress or openly acknowledge his partisan, issue, ideological, and "good government" biases in most of his writing here. If you have a question about any particular writing, just ask him about it and (unless you are an pseudonymous troll) he will probably answer you at painful length.
He lives in Beautiful Bountiful Brea, but while he may brag about it he generally doesn't blog about it. A family member works as a campaign treasurer for candidates including Wendy Gabriella in AD-73; he doesn't directly profit from that relatively small compensation and it doesn't affect his coverage. He does advise some campaigns informally and (except where noted) without compensation.

As I remember the TARP vote, Loretta, Dana and Ed Royce voted against, while Campbell, Calvert and Miller voted yes.

Being one of only two votes in favor of Congressional insider trading is even more embarrassing, adding insult.

I wonder if Calvert’s gonna have trouble with the Riverside GOP, now that his district no longer reaches into our county? Unlike Campbell, he is an actual Earmark MONSTER, having made it into FOX’s special on “Earmarks for Profit.”

And Gary Miller is gone now? That guy is even more crooked than Calvert.

TARP was political cover that gave the impression that Congress knew how to deal with the financial crisis. Reinstating Glass-Steagall is the necessary 1st step to deal with the economic collapse.

Candidate John Webb and the GOP Central Committee are clueless. Sukhee Kang is also clueless. The three of them should be after Rep. John Campbell to cosponsor H.R. 1489 which will reinstate Glass-Steagall 1933-1999.

Rep. Campbell was not a member when Congress killed Glass-Steagall. Campbell is a member of the Financial Services Committee and his cosponsoring of H.R. 1489 would be huge.

I think it is more likely that Rep. Campbell and Irvine Mayor Sukhee Kang will be competing among the same small group of liberal voters in the district. I was surprised by the frustration the audience expressed against Rep. Campbell last night at the OCGOP. Currently, Democrats are about 28% of the district.

It’s more accurate to use the term “top-two primary,” although I’m swimming against the current there. “Open primary” is what we already had when you didn’t need to be a Democrat to vote in the Democratic primary etc.

Of course it’s a top-two primary. Whichever two candidates get the most votes in June, regardless of their party, move on to the November general election. This applies to Congressional races and state legislative races both. It’s hard to see how the top two vote-getters in this race, in June, are not John Campbell and Sukhee Kang. I’m not putting any money on Kang in November though, but I wish him luck!

skallywag

Posted February 22, 2012 at 10:52 AM

I am rooting for Campbell vs. Webb in the general – stranger things have happened.

Greg Diamond

Posted February 22, 2012 at 11:18 AM

@skally — root away! Stranger things have happened, but not many.

If you’re hoping for some hot GOP vs. GOP general election action, look to AD-74, where Leslie Daigle plans on pounding Mansoor into Mansore. Democrats are looking at that race and thinking — “those two fighting it out until November? Cool!”

Of course, there will be another candidate in the primary. Secret for now.

Seems you are also still having trouble getting your head wrapped around the new top-two primary. You’re predicting that John Webb with his $2500 and (you admit) zero name recognition is gonna beat the Democratic, Korean-American, Mayor of Irvine, with his $190K, in June? How does THAT one work, Art?

@Art — “celebrating”? This is reporting. It’s newsworthy that Campbell lost the OCGOP nod, whether it’s because he’s lousy or because some of the delegates are loopy.

I don’t think I mentioned homophobia in my article. Let me check. Nope, all I mentioned were the ostensible reason for rejecting him (his TARP vote) and the upcoming problem that he may have coming with rejecting earmarks.

For those readers who miss your style of writing, here are the first three paragraphs of the article that you tout here:

The desperate Democratic Party of Orange County issued a press release today celebrating the fact that U.S. Rep. John Campbell failed, by one vote to garner the endorsement of the Republican Party of Orange County. The release was written by the DPOC’s 26-year old executive director, Nick Anas, who failed miserably as the head of Irvine Council Member Beth Krom’s campaign against Campbell in 2010.

But – Campbell was rejected in part because he was “one of 15 House Republicans who voted in December 2010 to lift the “don’t ask, don’t tell” ban on gays serving openly in the military, an issue that rankled his party’s social conservatives,” according to the Daily Pilot.

So of course that means that the DPOC is celebrating today because homophobic Republicans rejected Campbell’s endorsement. Nice.

(I highlighted that words that would shame a lesser ego than Art’s, whom I shall not — no no no — call “desperate” despite my being able to smell the flop sweat in his column.) Yes, we read Pedroza’s natterings so that you don’t have to!

*Being a constituient is pretty scary business….when someone gets the wrong Congressman. Let’s start out by saying…..the Anti-Earmark stance has caused the
lack of Congressional funding and support for the Newport Bay annual Dredging Requests. Saying folks in NB are against earmarks….is like saying……..we don’t want any government “air or water”…….we want to supply our own! The original argument which we started with Indiana Congressman Mike Pence…went something like this: “Why was there a bridge to nowhere in Alaska Congressman?” “If that is an example of erroneous ‘earmarks’….why isn’t the Congress doing something about it?”

The obvious stupid “over-reaction” to earmarks…meant that projects like the SF Bay Bridge, the Newport Harbor Dredging and many projects in San Diego have wound up dismissed by the very Congress folks that needed to support them. The question should have been: “Are their reasonable earmarks….or are they all endemically foul?”

Next came our personal vendetta on the lack of Regulation and Oversight of the Fumigation Industry. After 60 years, the State of California finally called various well known gases…..exactly what they were: VOC’s! Volatile Organic Compounds! But that was a fix-it patch from the State. The Feds and our Congressman at the time..
refused to broach the subject.

Campbell will probably win again…because he has all the Car Dealers, Real Estate folks and Chamber people getting their fair share in exchange. However, it is extremely heathy to have two or three folks run against him which will cause him to engage in a run-off……which may be close enough to make him wet his pants.

Orange County needs aggressive, intense and caring Congresspeople. Dana plays the game hard, Loretta even goes to the Playboy Mansion. We still miss Bob Dornan, Bill Dannemeyer and Chris Cox however…..they were the best! Ah, for the good old days!

It will be interesting to see who the OCGOP thinks that is someone with passion and willing to entreat for a few earmarks “back to the district”! It’s sadly not the names that you might immediately pull out. “Phony, paid off and equivacating…..” is not what we are talking about. The current list of bad “B” Players are not ready for prime time in our opinion.

Debra Pauley, Debbie Cooke, Lucille Kring and some other Unnamed candidates might want to reconsider their current stand-down stances…sometime in the near future.